Quinnipiac University Women’s Soccer – Coach Dave Clarke
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Clarke from the Quinnipiac Women’s Program in Connecticut. We talk about how he likes to connect with DOCs about potential recruits. He describes the school’s top science programs and other academic avenues. Lastly, we discuss their staff and how they are able to use the experts around campus to help the team. Learn more about Quinnipiac University Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Dave Clarke from Quinnipiac. Welcome coach.
Coach: Morning, Matt. How you doing?
Matt: Doing well, thanks. Got a, got a nice, nice program up there in Connecticut. Congratulations on a successful season. Winning your conference title.
That’s, that’s gotta be, uh, good stuff for, for the girls up there.
Coach: Yeah, it was a good way to end the season. Yeah, it’s al always good when you, when you do something like that and that’s the, I mean, that’s the end of every program I’m sure. But yeah, it was. Right.
Matt: Well, I, I’m excited to talk to you. You’ve been there over 20 years, which is amazing.
Uh, especially in this day and age, , all the coaches change coaching changes around. Uh, so you’ll be able to give us some really unique, uh, insight into the program. But let’s first start talking about recruiting. You know, I mean, the season’s over, it’s college showcase, uh, prime time, right? So I’m guessing, You’re, you’re in the thick of it.
Um, in terms of your timing and, and classes, are you still working on your, your 20 threes or, or is that pretty much done and dusted and you’re focused on 20 fours? What’s that look like for you guys?
Coach: No, we’re, we’re still looking at 23. Uh, COVID obviously has impacted every team, so we’re still in the midst of our players gonna stay.
Are they gonna take their fifth year? Uh, the beauty of a school like ours and the way that we recruit is we’re heavily, uh, in the sciences. Uh, so I, I, I recruit [00:01:30] nursing majors, PA majors, P T O T, which is unusual for division one. Uh, that’s because it, it’s the strength of the school. We’ve got two top 10, top 20 programs in nursing, pa.
Um, so we really go after players in those programs. So we do have players in the program that are here for five, six, and seven years. Hmm. So that, that’s the strength. Uh, but it also complicates because in the fifth year or sixth year, uh, depending on where the players are, In their clinicals, in their rotations, they could have a heavy schedule where they’re not on campus or they could have a light one where they are, but then the hours are different.
So, you know, I’m sure we’ll get into like, one of our best players this past year. Uh, kk you know, we never, she, she rarely trained. If she did, it was once a week, but then she was also starting rotations at 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM and going all day. How she managed to put in the performances she did, it was incredible.
But then next year it could be even more demanding for her in her fifth year. Um, so we have to weigh up a lot of those options. Um, and then whatever we bring in in 23, Uh, I have to wait to see what positions we fill before we really go after 20 fours. So we’re, right now, I think it’s more year to year, uh, rather than, uh, two or three years out.
We’re not, you know, I know the power files and the [00:03:00] rationale for why they do it, but we are really heavily, uh, reliant on the academics. We need to see the grades. In the senior year, the junior late into the junior year to make sure they get in. But then also seeing where our current players are in their schedule.
Matt: No, that, that makes a lot of sense. Um, with, uh, with all the, the, the different showcases and things that go on are, are there kind of must hit events that you try to get to every year? Uh, to, to look at? Well,
Coach: I’m also involved with an ECNL club, so ECNL is definitely high on the list. Uh, just if, if not.
For me, per se, is like when I’m there, I’m not necessarily looking at all the players. I’ll have one of the other assistants I’ll attend. I’m more networking. Um, I’ve found over the last couple of years, and especially through Covid, uh, and I’ve also had a role with the U 70 and U 20 national team, so I’ve had direct sort of correspondence.
Coaches, you know, about players going to the Power five schools. So that opened my eyes a little bit to the networking aspect. So I, I’ve started to focus a little bit more on, on reaching out to directors of coaching, trying to get them to understand what we offer as a school academically, uh, rather than going to that tournament trying to find players.
I’d rather identify, uh, you know, I can I, if I email A DoC in California or down. [00:04:30] Or the Midwest. I’m not asking them for their best players. I’m actually asking them, tell me who your nursing major is. Tell me if you have a kid that’s a PA major, tell me if you’ve got a kid that might be interested.
Going on to the East coast. I had that where the d o c from Colorado this week, she, she gave me two players that were in those majors and wanted to, to play on the East Coast. So that for me is, has been sort of a better, a way to spend the time at e, c and L. Uh, we do look at the ga, we do look at other events.
Uh, we’re trying to find that player that nobody else is really looking at. You know, a player that flies under the radar. Late developer. Um, you know, because for us, when you, when you, if you look at where we are in the northeast, the level of competition, even with EC L clubs, it’s almost, it’s very, very competitive.
So to try and get the top players, even the top players in cfc, Are going to, you know, my players are gonna Purdue, they’re gonna to Boston College, uh, Yukon, uh, schools like that. It just, now you’re getting down to player 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, which if you want to really succeed, we need to be trying to get that top tier player, that top five player.
And that’s, that’s not easy in a, in a very competitive environment. So trying to find a player. Uh, you know, we picked up a player from the west coast that came, [00:06:00] advi recommended. I traveled there, watched there a couple of times. So for us that, that’s been more beneficial. So it’s trying to narrow the focus rather than just broad E C N L.
Yeah.
Matt: No, that makes, I get that. Well, what about camps? Do you guys run your own camps? Do you or your staff work other camps? Do they fit in at all to your recruiting?
Coach: Um, we do, we do our own clinics. Uh, we try to do two or three a year, wherever, where the numbers are actually, uh, are there, you know, for us to bring players in.
We run it more like a training session, so it’s not like 50 or 60. We try to go 24 to 32, we have four goalkeepers, and then run it like a training session. So not, not a money making event. Um, I’m not a big fan of the big business clinics, um, but I do, you know, let. , the assistants attend their events. You know, I will, I will go in.
If there’s players there and there’s a market there, whether it’s one player or two players, or just to showcase the school. So I, I never say no on anything because you just never know where you, where you’re gonna make a connection, whether that’s where the player, whether that’s where a sibling of a. Or whether that’s where a coach or a club, d o c.
So I, I never shut the door on any, uh, any event whatsoever. Okay.
Matt: Well, looking at your roster now, it looks like you got a, a couple internationals, a good bit of Canadians actually. Um, how does, how does [00:07:30] international recruiting kind of fit into the overall landscape for you guys?
Coach: Well, again, going back to you, you said, I’ve been here at the school a long time, so what, that’s, what that’s also afforded me is a chance to reset the program every so often.
Uh, we’re in a stadium. This is our, this was our fifth year in the brand new stadium, um, that you see behind us. Um, so when we, when we started to move in a direction of where we were in terms of our level of support, we looked at. Resetting the program probably about 20 15, 20 16. So we recruited to the stadium.
We tried to target markets, you know, so we were like, all right, we’re not getting the very best E C N L. How can we get better players and still be able to compete? So with that, we made connections, uh, with a few clubs like Vaughn, Aurora, Markham, and Canada. And that first class of Canadians ended, uh, Nadia Gill was the first one.
Uh, and she had applied with the u sevens and U 20 national team, which then opened up the door, uh, for others. And then subsequently the players that we brought in, like Liv Scott, mark Bieri, uh, Courtney Chowk. Dave Malia de Rosario, who unfortunately had a lot of injuries in our time. They’re all U 17 and U 20 Canadian national team players now.
Yeah, we’re getting that level of player, but they’re also the majors, the nursing, the business, um, the health science. So they’re [00:09:00] not just coming in. Purely for soccer. They, they did come in, they actually all, uh, attended a clinic. Uh, the last clinic we held on our grass field are all grass fields. But they saw the school, uh, they saw the, the medical school, what we offered.
And once, once that opened the door, now we’ve been able to get in other international. So it’s a good market for us. And then, , our ice hockey programs one of the best in the country. Uh, you know, the men are number two in the country right now. Uh, and they’ve been to a number of final fours and are becoming a hop ed of NHL players.
So for us in Canada, It works out well. We don’t have to sell the school because, so everywhere you go, someone knows a player who went to the school, both the men’s and the women’s ice hockey team. I was up in Nova Scotia. I was actually at a soccer event in Nova Scotia, but on one side of the facility.
Was an ice rink and on the other side was an indoor soccer field. And I’m with my Quinnipiac, I don’t have Quinnipiac soccer on it, but the logo and a number of people that were coming up to me and I was like, ah, I’m loving this. Until they realized I wasn’t the ice hockey coach , they thought I was the ice hockey scout, the soccer one.
So, but that, that to me is like in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You know, I’m at an event, uh, and everyone knew the school. So that gave me another insight into that. Branching out of players. So we’ve been fortunate, now we’ve added Vancouver. Obviously Ontario is is a [00:10:30] big draw for us, but there are other areas that we’re gonna ex expand into or try to make connections with too.
Okay.
Matt: Well, you know, we, you talked a little bit about it so far, but, but let’s learn a little bit more about the school. You know, I’m down here in, in Florida, so I’m sure we’ve got some, some girls in my club who, who, who wouldn’t have the first idea about, uh, Quinnipiac. So, you know, you’ve been there a while.
Give, give us some good insights, uh, about the school. What are some awesome things that maybe I’m not gonna learn just by going through the website?
Coach: It’s, it’s a small school in terms of the location. Yeah. It’s not as big as the big state. Uh, but having said that, we’re about eight to 10,000 undergrad in grad total, we’ll get to about 12,000.
It’s a very self-contained campus. We’re surrounded by, uh, a state park. Everyone comes to sea, especially in the fall. Uh, the, the rivers run runs around and we’ve got three campuses. Uh, the main campus, uh, York Hill, which is where the ice hockey and basketball arena and the, and the juniors and seniors live.
And then we got the medical school, which now is medic. Uh, we have medicine, engineering, and law. There’s only three schools in Connecticut that offer medicine, engineering, and law. There’s only 50 in the country that offer them, uh, the two orders in Connecticut. One is the University of Connecticut Yukon, which everyone knows, and the, and the other one’s, a little school 10 minutes away called Yale.
Uh, so that’s, that’s the level of school academically that we, uh, that we’ve sort of [00:12:00] developed into over that, over that time. Um, one of the other things is we’re only about 15 minutes away from E S P N, so, In Bristol, right down Route 10 and our broadcast journalism and sports journalism and all of our production, uh, majors, that’s also one of the national programs too.
So we’re able to attract players in that are interested in all sorts of, uh, careers in the media, in TB and journalism and film. And then because of by extension, I’m sure at some point in time you’ve, you’ve heard of the Quinnipiac poll. It’s always running, especially around any election time. That’s another one for our political science.
So students come in from all over the country that are interested in that program. So we offer, uh, top-notch health, science, nursing, pa as I mentioned before, PT and ot, all some of the best programs in the country. Uh, and what the medical school is just an easy sell. Um, We’re sort of basing it in an easy location, an hour and 15 minutes outside New York, hour and a half from Boston.
So in terms of the north northeast corridor, we can go now to players West coast, Midwest, down south and say, listen, if you’re interested in a school that’s close enough where you can travel, uh, Philadelphia is not too far. We’re on that Washington DC corridor. So you can do a lot within a two hour, three hour train, [00:13:30] ride, bus.
Which is, you know, unlike some of the big state schools and schools across the country, uh, and that’s become a selling point. You know, we’re not able to offer, you know, year round sunshine like you down there. But, but there’s definitely a selling point in terms of the academics of the school, the location, uh, and especially when you get into business being close.
Proximity to New York City and Wall Street. And then corporations, uh, Fairfield counties, one of the richest counties, if not the richest counties in the country where a lot of companies have their headquarters there, especially in Stanford. and we’re only 40 minutes from Stanford down 91 95. So you, if you’re a business major and you wanna work on Wall Street, the N B A program as well, the marketing, you’ve, you’ve just got the biggest companies in the world that you doorstep.
So there’s a lot to sell. You know, it’s taken me a long time over. Over the years to start to narrow down, Hey, in business we can sell this. We’ve got a law school, we’ve got a nursing, we’ve got a medical school, uh, and a location. You know, everyone complains about where they live, but truthfully, one of the reasons I’ve stayed is.
The location of the school, the quality of the school, the philosophy of the school, the academics we offer. I’m an educator, are hard too. I’m one of the, I’m one of a dying breed where I was a, an educator before I was a coach, and that was what I, that was always what I wanted to do, combine both. So I, I valued the education of the school.
I did my master’s at quit in journalism, so [00:15:00] I, I value the education program that the school offers, and all four of my kids are at Quinnipiac. They didn’t look elsewhere one place as well. Uh, but, uh, they didn’t, they didn’t even wanna look at other schools. They’d grown up there and they, they had their programs and the education that they wanted.
Um, so that, that’s, that’s probably, you know, the best testimonial I can give is not my four kids. All I wanted to attend the school too.
Matt: Absolutely. Well, that, that, that’s, it’s a nice little bonus. Right. So you got, like you said, you’re, you’re a walking testimonial. Well, you, you’ve, you’ve mentioned it a little bit, but I’m gonna kinda combine these questions, but, you know, it sounds like the, there is a lot of academic rigor there, especially in, in those medical programs and stuff.
So, so how do your student athletes really balance, uh, their academics and athletics, and what does that do for. Your schedule, uh, during the season in terms of when practices and, and leaving for games and all that kind of stuff?
Coach: Well, first of all, in terms of the programs, because you know, try to explain to someone why, why we have, like nursing in our PA would be top 10.
They move in and out. They’ve been top 20, let’s say. Um, academically and ranked is. The demands of the s a T scores and the GPA required to get in the demands of the p a required to stay in the program. So for, uh, Quinnipiac, most programs you have to have a 3.3 GPA to stay in. So in tho in those [00:16:30] high health science, uh, Y 3.3, they did research many years ago.
3.3 was the GPA that almost guaranteed you’re gonna pass your boards and be certified when you’re done with your degree. Other schools are, uh, since now that other schools that are rivals against us, um, that they u they require like 2.5 or 2.7. So that, that’s the first difference. It’s the quality of the student that we bring in.
Two, I never compromise on the students. Um, so rarely do I. I’ve always said, I don’t really recruit liberal arts and I don’t re recruit business undecided. I’d rather go and I’d rather have 10 nursing majors than 10 liberal arts students because they’re more focused. They know what they want. They’re more disciplined coming in.
Uh, we had a class last year that. The five of the players had the grades to go to an Ivy League institution. So we compete with schools more, our peer schools for us as a, as an institution of the likes of Lehigh, Colgate, Northeastern, uh, Hofstra, wake Forest. So that’s our peer group. Obviously those schools are in big, our conferences, but that gives you a, that gives you an idea of the academic standing behind the scenes that we’re competing with when we come in.
if I bring in players 2.0 gpa, 800 s a t, they might be better players, but they’ve caused problems off the field. [00:18:00] If there was one thing that I said, you know, if you were to ask me why I’ve stayed 22 years, it’s because the players graduate and they stay there and they do their masters and they, we’ve got doctors and lawyers that have all gone through the whole system.
So the kid that causes problems is gonna be the kid with the 2.0 Liberal arts, non not as focused as the nursing or pre-med kid. It’s difficult in terms of the team because we. Practice slot two to four are really one to five every day, uh, which runs, which coincides with clinicals and rotations. So I have a, I have a schedule up in my locker room.
I’m missing players on Monday. Which players am I missing on Tu Tuesday, Thursday, Friday? We tend not to have them miss. Wednesday, game day. Um, but we do have players that could be coming late, not necessarily at warm up, always coming in and their medical fatigues so, I’ve had a few, as a couple of assistants who have been, you were in the last few years ask me, well, you know, why can’t we get them here all the time?
I go, well, we wouldn’t even have them in the school if we didn’t sell them on what we’re offering, so I’m not gonna change now. It’s almost run with a, an Ivy League type mentality. When they’re there, they’re there. When they’re not there, they’re not. Um, so, uh, we could go early in the morning, but then training at 9:00 AM doesn’t work with everyone else’s scheduled.
And you, you have other issues. They’re [00:19:30] not sleeping right. They’re not eating right. So, uh, most games are two o’clock till four to four o’clock in the afternoon. So we train during that time. We have fewer con, you know, fewer conflicts overall. Uh, but yeah, it’s, it’s not always ideal. The day before the game, not having one or two of your best players around.
But they also turned out to be the best students and more focused. Uh, when they come in, if they only have a half an hour window to come in and work, they come in, they do it, they, they lift, they train, they warm up, they get out, they do the ball, and they, and they leave. Um, so over time, I probably could list like five or six of my top players down the last 15 years, and they’ve bought all, been in those programs where we haven’t had them every day of the week.
So it’s not ideal, but it’s, it’s, it’s part of the overall philosophy of the program. It’s not gonna change, you know, I said it to my administrator the other day, unless they turn around and tell me, you know, we have to. , but then we’ve also shown that we can win with that type of kid. So we’re, we’re at that division one school that if you’re a nursing major, P T O T and pre-med, we want you and we’ll work around with you on your schedule.
Matt: No, that’s great. Well, let’s talk a little bit about the soccer side of things. We mentioned you guys had a great season. Um, you know, In terms of your roster, and, and you were talking about 50 years, and I know it’s, it’s been a weird time for college coaches in roster management, uh, [00:21:00] because of all those, uh, covid changes and things like that.
But is there a roster size that you try to hit every year that you find is ideal? We,
Coach: we tend to work around 25, 26. Uh, our numbers are based on what the overall numbers of the school, so it fluctuates. Uh, You know, it’s, it’s a little bit bloated now in terms of numbers, but, you know, I’m not, uh, any of the players that have an extra year of eligibility.
We’ve left it up to them to decide, for the most part, whether they wanna stay or not. Um, I’m not gonna cut those players and we, we’ve a couple of training players that have been great. Uh, they know their role within the team, and especially when we don’t have players at practice as mentioned previously.
So their, their value to the team is we always have the ability to play 11 by 11 and train 11 by 11 when needed. Um, ideally, in the perfect world, you have a roster at 22 to 24, you know, but that, that those days are gone and truthfully, that was more of a soccer perspective, you know, like a tournament perspective that you, you know, I really only want 18 to 22 players cuz of management.
But over the course of a season, as you see with most professional teams, you need a bigger squad. You need more depth in every position. So, um, 25, 26 is manageable, but you know, you’re getting up into that 26 to 30 range right now in the, in this era. But, um, once the sort of covid years, Um, are over [00:22:30] in, in terms of eligibility.
Yeah. I want to keep it to about 25 to 27 max. Cause you know, when you throw in, you’re gonna have three or four goalkeepers and then all of a sudden two, if you have two to three injuries coming and going, uh, never mind long term. Um, now you’re down to 18 players, so you’re really talking 99. And so that, that’s, that’s manageable.
I, I hope we’re never told, you know, you have the card. 30 plus. You know, I know there are some schools like that, but it’s, it’s also given everyone a, a, a positive experience. So, uh, planning is always is difficult when you’ve got the high numbers cuz you wanna make sure that Matt plays 10 minutes, day plays 10 minutes and yeah.
You know, you’re balancing moving in and out, but you also wanna make sure that the intensity is high. That you, you’re playing at the intensity that you’re acquiring the game. So it’s a lot of management, but for me that’s, that’s part of the job. It’s not, it’s not an issue. That’s just something, you know, you spend time working out lineups, training activities, rotations, ratios, not an issue for me.
Matt: Yeah. Well you mentioned, uh, earlier when we were. Tournaments and stuff that, that you have staff that, that help you out as well. So can you talk a little bit about the staff you have and the roles that they play?
Coach: Yeah, we, we’ve, we’ve been fortunate that, um, you know, we get a lot of support, uh, uh, at the school, um, in terms of [00:24:00] hiring and then also myself.
I’m very much of that approach that I’ve been around. Successful teams with US soccer. And then you look at the role that the supports staff play. So we’ve always had access. I couldn acted different things, so I’ll go into like nutritional psychology, things like that, but I’ve embraced it. So when I look, I have two full-time assistants.
Um, this year was more, uh, the new, the newest assistant was on the field. Prior to that, uh, she had been a goalkeeper coach with a sports psych background. So I try to have different areas. So, um, A little bit of a different personality to me, a little bit of a different role or how they see the game. So I’m one of those.
I like a little bit of the, the arguments and. People question ’em, why we do things. So we’re not the same. The three of us on staff, the full-time three are not the same. We have different views of the game, how it should be played, uh, but agree on the overall philosophy. Uh, I have a goalkeeper coach as a volunteer, um, who’s there all the time for the most part, a director of ops who’s there every.
uh, he used to be, um, a researcher at Yale. He’s got great, uh, insight in statistics and research, so he does a lot with the data. Anything in insta, anything that comes up? Uh, statistical analysis. I do. I tend to do a lot of the video. I do all the defending. [00:25:30] Steve does the And an attack and set, play Shawn now.
Cuz she has sports science, we’ll do warmups, uh, play with the team and, and really need focus on the end because she was a player, uh, at Central and won four championships and gone to the NCAAs too. We have full-time strength and conditioning because of our medical program. We have full-time, um, sports medicine, so that’s year round and we have, and then we also have students coming and going.
Again, going back to the educational component of the program, I always use the student staff, so we bring them as well, so they may help with taping, massage recovery, which is again, is unusual. We have full-time sports information, again going back to the program and the sports journalism, and they’ll travel with us as well and be around all the time.
And because of the nature of the program, we’ve, we’ve constantly got like a media element that’s above and beyond the level. Uh, of the program maybe. Um, but because of so many programs in the school that are look and students looking to go to E S P N, we have in-house TV station, sports production, all of that.
So that’s good. Uh, we haven’t, we have access to it. Nutritionist, Dana White, uh, we have Devin Markle, who’s sports psychology. And they work with us full-time. Um, and then we also use, because of the medical school, we use, uh, sports Performance Lab. Uh, so Juan Garza, Dr. Juan [00:27:00] Garza is also part of our staff, uh, where he does training.
So like this, this January when we come back in, the players will do biomechanics, all testing, VO two blood block tape. Uh, so while I only have two full-time with me, I actually have this extended staff that we use, um, so the players can come and get all the advice, and then I’m not an expert in sports psych, so they can go to the person that is, I’m not an expert in strength and conditioning.
Yeah. I’m not an expert in nutrition. So, uh, I’d say that’s the biggest takeaway for me is that even if we didn’t have full-time resources, . So many schools have experts on their campus that they don’t use. So that was one thing that I took away probably about 10 years ago. I reached out to Juan who was doing all this research and a c l injuries and prevention, uh, and when we didn’t have full-time support, we were doing a lot of work with him and.
And then the same way I needed someone to do a video and I needed someone to edit and put stuff together. So I went to the, the communications department and we got, uh, a GA every year for fif three credits to work with the team, taking videos and putting videos together. So that’s, that’s sort of been morphed into now, now all of a sudden have this staff and it’s great, but it’s, uh, We always use the term stay in your lane so [00:28:30] everyone knows their role.
Everyone stay, stay in your lane and do your role and do your role to the best of your ability. So I have a couple of young, um, strength and conditioning in sports, uh, medicine staff members, uh, both female, uh uh, uh, coincidentally, but. They’re not used to me telling them, you are the expert. You do your job.
You tell me if the player can play, you tell me if they’re fit. You tell me. I’m not gonna second guess you. So that’s the way the program is run. I don’t overrule them. I don’t second guess. We, my staff will argue about lineup. Ultimately, I have to make the decision. But in terms of the actual expertise within the program, I let them do their.
Um, and then at the end of the year, and we always have meetings about what can we do better, let them have their input. So we meet after we were supposed to meet last week, but that whole staff will all meet together and everyone will present. So even though we won the league, and even though we went to the ncaa, we’re still gonna sit down and everyone is gonna say, this is what we can do better.
in each area. You know, it’s a concept of marginal gain, so to speak. So our goal is then to build on, you know, don’t, don’t settle for saying, yeah, it was a great year. Tell me what, tell me what we could have done bar. Tell me what you’ve sat on all year in nutrition and saying, Hey, they should have eaten that two [00:30:00] hours before the game, not three.
You know, we should, you know, like sports psych, she sees all the players and confidentiality wise, but she might say to me, give them an extra mental health day, you know, in preseason. Give them another day off. Physically, mentally, no soccer, no nothing. Do more activities based on the team bonding. So whatever they say, we’ll plan and understand that we’ve gotta take something out.
What, so yeah, I rely on that expertise. That’s probably, for me, is the biggest change in my time. You know, 15 years ago, five years ago, I was running a program on my own and now all of a sudden I’ve gotta manage a big staff. So that, that’s been, that’s been an evolution in and of itself.
Matt: Yeah, it sounds like it, but it sounds like, uh, you’re, you’re, you’re in an enviable position.
I think that most coaches would love to have, uh, all those Yeah, yeah. Those expert staff at their, at their fingertips. So what, coach, you’ve been really generous with your time. We’ve covered a lot of ground. I always like to end these with the same thing, and that’s what didn’t we cover. What else would you like folks to know, whether it’s about the college recruiting process, about your school, or anything else?
I’ll leave you with the last.
Coach: No, I’d say from a recruiting perspective, because obviously your, your target audience is, is players and coaches is just to be honest in the process, um, and not to overlook schools. You know what I mean? Again, the educator in me is, I don’t get upset when players don’t come to [00:31:30] Quinnipiac.
Players have to find their fit and I just wish coaches and parents would understand that a little bit. Um, Dave Nolan at Georgetown and myself, we grew up together and, and Dave made a comment to me a long time ago, and it’s, I’ve started to use it and steer his philosophy that, um, when a player makes a decision not to come to Quinnipiac, I, I used to get frustrated and upset.
Now I don’t, I don’t care. And I don’t, I don’t mean her in a total ambivalence way. I mean it in the sense that, , that player has to make that decision. It’s a life-changing decision for her. It’s not a life-changing decision for. . So it affects her for the rest of our life. It only affects me until the next player commits in that position.
So these clubs and these coaches and these schools that get upset when a recruit leaves or doesn’t get picked on, just say, listen, it’s in the best interest of the kid. Let them, let them choose their own path. And then there is a school out there. But going back to the honesty, The soccer world’s very small.
I’m sure we start talking about coaches, even in Florida, you know. I’ve been down at IMG, was like a second home in my time with US Circus. I know people down there and then all the different clubs as well. There’s people that I’ve come across that live and work in Florida and Mark McCory when he was at Florida State, started at Hartford and Franklin Pierce.
Prior to that, we were good friends. [00:33:00] So you know, a lot of these players, coaches, schools, it’s a very small world, so don’t play one off against the. Um, you know, understand that it’s a very, very small, uh, circle of connections. So, you know, be honest and respectful when you’re talking to everybody. And hopefully the coaches are in return and, you know, good luck.
It’s a, it’s a playing soccer, whether it’s the vision one, two, and three in a i a or junior college, and I’m not one of those division one snobs. Um, you know, if, if you can, if you. Have four years and someone gives you an education or helps pay for your education through soccer, enjoy it. It’s a great ride.
And don’t forget, you’re one of the, you’re one of the top 1% that’s fortunate enough to play a college sport and your sport. So, you know, good luck and enjoy the experience. I love it.
Matt: Well, and who knows, our paths may have crossed when I was down at I mg, uh, running the old tournaments there about a decade ago.
But, uh, well, if you get, are your, are you, you’re Connecticut girls coming to the Florida Eastern ECNL? Uh, in a couple weeks.
Coach: Yeah. I’ll be there. Yeah. All right. Stay my seven and the six days I’ll be down there. So I will be at the Easton.
Matt: All right, well, I’ll check your schedule and, uh, swing by and say hello.
I’m three miles from those fields, so, okay.
Coach: Yeah, Lakewood Ranch was like a second home for me with us soccer, so. Yep.
Matt: Yeah, absolutely, coach. Thanks again and we’ll talk soon.
Coach: All right, Matt. Thank you. Take care. All the best.
